


i'm prone to getting blinded when its bright

by luumenss



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Flirting, M/M, Mutual Pining, and stitching wounds, he/they cody, pete needs to deal with his own emotions, slight description of injuries, the inherent eroticism of taking care of someone's injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28110162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luumenss/pseuds/luumenss
Summary: “Ow- FUck, ow ow ow-”“Cody, I haven’t even started stitching yet, this is just the iodine-”“It still stings!” Cody grumbled, wincing in pain as Pete tried to dab at his cut on his face with an iodine-soaked cotton pad.“You nearly got crushed by a giant building monster and you’re complaining about a little disinfectant?”“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” Cody muttered as Pete put down the cotton pad and carefully replaced the lid of the iodine bottle.
Relationships: Pete the Plug/Cody "Night Angel" Walsh
Comments: 1
Kudos: 94





	i'm prone to getting blinded when its bright

**Author's Note:**

> title from it's december by ricky montgomery

“HEY, ASSHOLE!”

Cody leapt from the top of the building, swinging The Questing (Thirsting?) Blade down on the beast below him.

“GIVE ME MY MALL BACK, YOU FREAK!”

The beast growled and swiped up at Cody, knocking him out of the air and towards the ground. He flailed through the air, trying to figure out some way to catch himself but he was falling too quickly.

Shit. Pete stretched out his hand on impulse, sending a purple cloud towards Cody to try and soften his fall. Cody slammed into it, letting out a muffled “oof” as he did.

“Cody, you good?” Pete shouted across the battlefield.

“I’m fine!” Cody groaned, staggering to his feet and wincing. “Uh, thanks, ma-” He was cut off by the behemoth of the monster they were fighting nearly crushing him to a pulp under it’s huge feet.

When the monster had first risen from the rubble of the Queen’s Center Mall, Cody had been rightfully distressed. It probably wasn’t fun to see a giant creature made out of your old workplace and distressingly cheery Gladiator signs try and kill you. It was a terrifying creature- several stories tall and built from stone and brick, old mannequins and chairs from the food court, glass doors and posters advertising the upcoming Gladiator campus. Living buildings weren’t anything new to most members of the Unsleeping City, but most of this time they weren’t this big. Or angry.

Cody yelped and rolled out of the way of the stomp just in time, and Pete let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

Cody stood up again, smiling at Pete across the battlefield, his hair blowing gently in his grin. Quickly his smile dropped and his eyes widened with fear.

“PETE, LOOK OUT!” he screeched, pointing up frantically.

Pete glanced upwards just in time to throw a shield spell above him, catching the huge piece of rubble seconds before it crushed him.

“Dammit,” Pete hissed, muscles straining as he heaved the rock off of him. He paused to catch his breath for a moment, taking in the violence of the battlefield.

Cody had returned to slicing at the giant with his sword, aggressively slashing a poster displaying the eerily smiling face of a Gladiator employee. Kingston's hands glowed with faint light as he pressed them to Ricky’s chest, waking him up with a gasp. Madame Anastasia did something with her hands and propelled Sofie through the air as shadows swirled around her.

This might not have been their hardest fight ever, but it still sucked.

“Hey!” Kingston shouted over the din of the battlefield. “I think the energy source is in this thing's chest, we just have to get that!”

“On it!” Pete shouted back. Ricky, Sofie, and Madame Anastasia all turned from what they were doing and focused any ranged spell attacks they had on the giant.

Cody, however, started sprinting at the beast and started running up it’s side (how, and also why), their sword glowing majestically in his hands.

Kingston stared up at Cody, eyes wide with shock. “He knows this whole thing will come down, right?” he yelled in Pete’s direction.

Fuck.

“Cody, wait-” he started to shout, but it was too late.

“FUCK YOU!” Cody screeched as he raised his sword above his head and drove it straight through the chest of the beast, right into its glowing core. The creature froze, the light glowing impossibly bright as the creature’s body began to tremble.

“GET COVER,” Ricky’s voice snapped Pete out of his paralysis and he sprinted closer to Kingtson, who waved his hands as glowing golden light began to surround the two of them. A split second later, light that emanated from the creature went dark, and it began to crumble, taking Cody with it.

Rocks rained down from the sky above them, and Pete squeezed his eyes shut and hoped that Cody would make it out alive.

…

“Ricky? Sofia? Madame Anastasia?” Kingston’s voice echoed across the battlefield, bouncing off of the huge pieces of rubble that covered the landscape.

“Here, Kingston!” Madame Anastasia waved her hands, blowing dust from her skirt as she stood at the edge of the wreckage. Kingston rushed over to her, checking her for injured as checked to make sure her box was intact.

“Over here!” Sofie’s voice called out from the other side of the field. Pete turned to see her and Ricky emerging from their hiding spot behind one of the mall’s remaining mall formations.

“Everyone okay?” Ricky yelled.

“We haven’t found Cody yet!” Pete shouted back, and started heading towards the center of the wreckage pushed aside checks of drywall and an old Anthropologie sign in search of his missing roommate.

Still, nothing. Dread had begun to creep in, curling in the pit of Pete’s stomach. “Cody?” he shouted to no avail. “Night Angel? Come on Cody, where are you?”

The others joined him in his search, spreading out across the wreck and calling out as loud as they can.

Faint sirens wailed in the distance, and Madame Anastasia’s forehead creased. “We can’t stay here,” she called to the others. “We need to get somewhere safe, fast.”

Pete clenched his fist. They couldn’t leave Cody here to die- sure, no one was saying that, but he could tell they were all thought the same thing. Even if Cody wasn't gravely injured, there were still the authorities and any other Gladiator creatures that could go after him, or another monster from the city that could attack him.

“Goddammit,” Pete hissed under his breath, grabbing a piece of rubble and throwing it to the side. Underneath lay a familiar sword, it’s blade still glowing as it had only minutes earlier. Hope flared in Pete’s chest, and his heart beat a little faster. “I found the Questing Blade!” he shouted, waving it above his head victoriously. “They’re here somewhere!”

“Pete?” A faint voice came from somewhere beside him. Cody.

“Over here!” Pete shouted, waving the others over frantically. “Hurry, we need to get him out!”

“Hey! I’m not that hurt, just- ow- trapped!” That was definitely Cody.

Ricky hurried over, and after gazing longingly at the Questing Blade still in Pete’s hands, he heaved a piece of wreckage away that seemed to have come from the corner of a Claire’s and revealed Cody beneath it, somehow decidedly uncrushed. He wasn’t unharmed- there was a nasty cut that started at his forehead and sliced through his eyebrow and down his face,but other than that there were no glaring wounds.

“See? I’m fine” he grinned. “I told you I’d fuck up that thing.”

Pete laughed and stretched out his hand. Cody grasped it and shakily pulled himself to his feet and his touch lingered on Pete’s skin long after he let go. (That’s probably something Pete needs to think about, but now is not the time.)

“Guys, hurry up!” Sofie motioned the others towards a street corner where Iga and Kingston both stood.

The sirens were wailing dangerously loud and they were risking being discovered by someone who probably would not be happy to find six idiots in the wreckage of a recently knocked down wall.

They hurried over and slipped into an alleyway, where Iga pulled out her box and expanded it to full size. Kingston frowned at it. “Is it safe? I mean, they won’t find us, right?”

Iga narrowed her eyes. “My box is perfectly safe Kingston, you know this. Now in!”

…

“What do you mean Kingston can’t fix my face?”

“Cody, I told you, he’s out of spells. Even voxes can expend their magical reserve, as dumb as it is. So we’re going the old-fashioned route.

“The what?”

Pete raised the magic first aid kit he always kept on him just in case. “I’m going to have to sew you up myself.”

…

“Ow- FUck, ow ow ow-”

“Cody, I haven’t even started stitching yet, this is just the iodine-”

“It still stings!” Cody grumbled, wincing in pain as Pete tried to dab at his cut on his face with an iodine-soaked cotton pad.

“You nearly got crushed by a giant building monster and you’re complaining about a little disinfectant?”

“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” Cody muttered as Pete put down the cotton pad and carefully replaced the lid of the iodine bottle.

“Alright,” he said, “This is just a numbing agent so it won’t hurt as bad-”

“That’s not very reassuring, man!” Cody yelped as Pete ripped open the gel packet and squeezed it onto his fingertip.

“You’ll be fine,” Pete laughed, his free hand reaching up to gently grasp Cody’s chin, steadying it.

Cody flushed a bright pink and avoided eye contact, and Pete pushed away any thoughts that might distract him from numbing Cody's wound.

“So,” Pete said, wiping his hands on a rag and picking up the suturing needle and thread. “This is going to hurt like a bitch, so you’re going to want a distraction. Talking through it will help.”

Cody paused, watching Pete struggle to thread the needle. “How did you learn how to do this? Take care of wounds, I mean?”

“Oh,” Pete paused, staring down at his hands. For a moment he wanted to lie, but he didn’t have to. Cody was part of the city, and he was his friend. Pete didn’t need to keep this a secret.

“Well, Kingston thinks he was the first person to teach me, after people at the hospital were getting suspicious as to why Kingston’s friends kept showing up with weird injuries, and going to the hospital every time you get hurt gets king of expensive, so a couple years ago he taught all of us how to take care of ourselves. I think it was his way of making sure Sofie is safe when she’s doing her vigilante thing.

“Vigilante thing?”

“Unimportant. Hold still, I’m going to start now, so uh, don’t move and just focus on the sound of my voice, okay?

Cody didn’t respond for a minute, but then he nodded and turned his cheek towards Pete. “Okay. Okay, just… keep talking.”

Pete laughed. “Sure thing, Night Angel.” He lifted the needle to wear the cut began, an inch above Cody’s left eyebrow. As soon as the stitching began, Cody twitched in pain, but he wasn’t moving as much as before. Instead, he just listened to Pete.

“Anyways, Kingston thinks I’m just a sewing prodigy, but that’s not entirely true. After I left more years ago, I was on my own for a while. When I didn’t have a steady source of income I’d go thrifting or go through what I already had and I’d fix up clothes with a needle and thread and make them wearable again. I wasn’t good at it at first, but after a couple years I was pretty decent. Once I got a job at the bookstore and started looking for a new place to live I thought about buying a used sewing machine in hopes of learning, but everything’s been so hectic I haven’t been able to, so I’ve stuck to sewing wounds and patches onto jackets.”

“I know how to use a sewing machine,” Cody whispered, his jaw clenched from the pain. “I’m shit at a needle and thread but I learned how to use a sewing machine a few years ago when I was teaching myself to make cosplay.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, I think I still have my old machine somewhere...I could teach you!.., If you wanted or something, it’s ok if you don’t want to, I get it-”

“No!” Cody winced and Pete immediately backpedaled. “No, I mean that would be great! I’d love that.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Cody said with a grin, and Pete felt his heart flutter.

“Yeah. a plan…” He murmured, probably focusing too hard on how Cody’s smile made his eyes light up and made faint dimples appear on his cheeks.

“Uh, Pete? You still have a needle in my face, remember?”

“Oh!” Pete snapped out of it scrambled to tie off the first set of stitches and focus on the bigger section, the one that sliced down Cody’s cheek and stopped above his mouth. He was about to start when Cody spoke up again.

“Hey, wait OW, ow ow ow fuck-”

“Do you want to hear the story of how a ruler of the Unsleeping City tried to pull an April Fool’s Day prank on me?” Pete interrupted, trying to distract him. Cody gave him a thumbs up, trying not to move his face, and Pete grinned. “Okay, so two years ago Nod decided to….”

…

Pete pulled out his phone, clicked on the selfie camera and turned it towards Cody.

“There! See, it’s not that bad!” (It was a terrible lie, and both of them knew it, but Cody was grinning anyways.

“You know Pete, this is a pretty cool-ass scar.”

“Yeah, I mean Kingston can probably fix it up when he wakes up and gets his spells back, but yeah. Very cool, Night Angel.”

Cody turned bright pink and very quickly handed Pete’s phone back to him. “SO! So, uh, do you want a tour? You haven’t been in here yet,” he said, gesturing vaguely around the room.

Pete tried very hard not to think about the implications of them walking around a big empty castle, alone, just the two of them, together… (Cody is just a friend after all) and shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

Cody held out his hand and Pete, without really thinking, took it. No going back now. They both froze for a minute and stared at their clasped hands, pointedly avoiding eye contact.

“Alright!” Cody yelped, voice cracking a little, as they promptly turned on their heel and began to drag Pete through Madame Anastasia’s magic box castle. It isn’t the most… comprehensive tour, but it’s probably better than Pete would do on his own. He’s not sure Madame Anastasia necessarily wants two idiots running through her box in the middle of the night- or what’s probably night, it’s hard to tell here- but Pete just doesn’t think about that.

After nearly a half hour of running up and down long empty hallways and peeking into the occasional dramatically furnished rooms, Cody yanked Pete down a long hallway decorated with dusty portraits and detailed tapestries.

Pete found it a little odd Cody didn’t stop to look at the weapons decorating the walls, but there was probably a reason for it.

“This is my favorite spot in this whole place,” Cody murmured, slowing to a stop in front of a set of huge oak doors.

“Doors? This is your favorite? I mean they are cool, but why are they-”

“No, you idiot,” Cody laughed, shaking his head as he did. “It’s what’s on the other side that counts.”

Pete paused, wondering what could be on the other side of the doors- an armory maybe? A whole room of just swords? Before he could think too hard about it, Cody squeezed his hand (oh) and pushed through the doors, and Pete gasped.

“Holy shit,” he whispered, not speaking too loudly out of fear that he might disturb the scene. They were standing on a small balcony, a wide expanse of trees surrounding them in all directions, fog clouding the air and obscuring the horizon. “I can see why you like it so much.”

He turned to face Cody, who was staring out at the forest beyond with a crease between their eyebrows.

“It’s different,” he murmured. “The forest got smaller. Just like Madame Anastasia said.”

Pete looked back towards the trees- he did think she had mentioned that her box world was changing.

“Something is wrong,” Pete says, wondering what the fuck is stealing trees from a magic box.

Cody jerked away from him, pulling their hands apart. “What? Where? What-” he spun around, hand reaching for a sword.

“Woah whoa whoa, calm down!” Pete reached over and steadied Cody, putting own hand on each of their shoulders. “Dude, it’s okay. I just meant something is wrong in general, not right now.”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah I knew that,” Cody laughed, blushing as he met Pete’s eyes, his hands gripping Pete’s biceps in a way that made Pete’s whole body feel like it was on fire.

“Sure,” Pete grinned and wondered what it would be like to kiss Cody right now. Fuck. It was probably a bad idea to fall for your friend/roommate/sort-of-superhero-teammate, but apparently his brain has decided to ignore all that and has focused on how even with a healing scar across their face Cody was still annoying hot.

The two of them stood there like that for probably a moment too long, and neither of them were quite sure what to do when Cody decided to pull away, clearing his throat and walking closer to the edge of the balcony.

“Even if it’s missing some part of itself, it's still oddly beautiful,” He said, his voice catching in his throat a little.

“Yeah…” Pete joined them at the balcony and tried very hard not to think about how Cody was also “oddly beautiful.”

“When we finally restore this place do you think we can convince Madame Anastasia to let us live in here permanently?” Cody gazed out at the forest, the soft mist around them dampening his hair.

“After you teach me to use a sewing machine maybe we can bribe her with quilts. She seems like a quilt lady, right?”

Cody laughed, and Pete’s heart fluttered again. “Sounds like a plan, dude.”

Pete rested his hands on the balustrade, next to Cody’s, and if their fingers touched then he’s okay with it. He’s been through a lot in the past few years and hasn’t allowed himself to feel anything romantic since Rowan. It’s probably risky, letting himself fall for Cody. It’s stupid, really. But who cares. Pete’s allowed to be a little stupid sometimes.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! fun fact after writing this i googled cody and pete and found out there is a youtube channel called cody and pete where two gys tell you how to use a sewing machine so uh. im a genius


End file.
